The “horrible” label Rob Lowe hated being stuck with: “It was designed to belittle us”
For about 40 years, Rob Lowe has been a consistently famous celebrity, and perhaps even a bit of an underrated actor, as he has always seemed to be someone that people are interested in.
To younger audiences, he might be most recognisable for his role in the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation or his many Netflix romantic comedies, but Lowe was once part of the group of young actors in the ‘80s known as the ‘Brat Pack’, a term derived from the ’60s edition of the ‘Rat Pack’ that included Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr, among others, but the Brat Pack involved the stars of high school comedies, many of which were either written or directed by John Hughes, who served as the representation of teen culture in the late ‘80s.
While the members were never explicitly defined, it certainly included all the stars of The Breakfast Club, such as Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, and Emilio Estevez, and others like Lowe, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, and Demi Moore, with some accounts even including Timothy Hutton, James Spader, Robert Downey Jr, Matthew Broderick, and both John and Joan Cusack.
Although it’s now used as a catch-all term, the Brat Pack was considered to be an insulating label when it was first coined in a June 1985 article by the New York Magazine writer David Blum, and he used it to be condescending in his description of these actors. Even if it has now begun to be used more lovingly by those who grew up with these actors, Lowe said that the article was unfair and that it painted him and his friends in a negative light.
“The article was horrible,” he said, “It was a hit piece, there’s no doubt about it. It was designed to belittle us, make us look small, with that journalistic trick of plausible deniability”.
Lowe later reunited with McCarthy, who in 2024 made the documentary Brats to examine the origin of the term and catch up with some of the group’s former members, but he had held on to his anger and blamed Blum for stereotyping him in a way that was detrimental to his career.
Ironically, Lowe seemed to be more accepting of the term, as it has become a way for him to remember his close circle of friends, and when looking at the stark differences between the careers of Lowe and McCarthy, it’s not hard to see why they might have felt differently about being labelled as part of the Brat Pack.
The latter had a few major roles in ‘80s films like Pretty in Pink and Weekend at Bernie’s, but his career failed to materialise in the aftermath, while comparatively, Lowe was able to make the transition to more dramatic material with films like Masquerade and Bad Influence, all while taking on self-deprecating roles when appearing in comedies like Wayne’s World and Tommy Boy.
Thanks to The West Wing and Parks and Recreation, he’s been a major part of some of the most beloved shows in history, so it’s likely Lowe would have had a great career, regardless of whether he was ever in the Brat Pack.
